Running on the Wrestlemania platform

We’re not in the business of endorsing candidates running for any office, and we won’t do that here. But occasionally, we admit to being charmed by one — in this case, one of the youngest candidates running for City Council … and most likely the only one who lives with his grandmother.

The last time San Antonio had a City Council election, Koi Mykale Smith was finishing up his junior year at Business Careers High School.

Now, at 19, he’s a first-year student at Northwest Vista College — and a candidate for District 6 on the City Council.

If there ever were a political neophyte, it would be Smith. The sum total of his political experience is a single failed race for Student Council. If he’d won, Smith says, his senior prom would have been a lot better.

Smith might not be schooled in the art of political savvy, but he seems to embody what voters often say they crave: honesty, candor and spirit.

A true believer, Smith thinks on a grand scale — even if it’s from his bedroom at his grandmother’s apartment.

We sat down over coffee this week and he mentioned something about the responsibilities his generation will face in years to come.

“What generation are you a part of?” I asked.

“I’m not sure what generation I am,” he said, “but I want my generation to find the cure to AIDs, cancer and bring peace to this world.”

His local vision includes a city in the vanguard of the green movement — recycling containers next to every single trash can, light-rail to decrease traffic and lessen greenhouse gases.

Smith says he also wants to increase staffing and the fire and police departments and plans to pay for it with revenue from his recycling program. He also wants to bring major events such as Wrestlemania to San Antonio to help stimulate the local economy.

“That’ll boost sales revenue, hotel revenue,” he said. “I think the next council needs to look into these events.”

Perhaps Smith’s biggest obstacle is just how to get out his message. His Jan. 15 campaign finance report shows that he’d raised exactly $0. He’d planned a carwash at a CVS pharmacy, but at the last minute the event was canceled by the company because it couldn’t support a political event, Smith said.

So he’s funding his own campaign.

“I’ve basically been paying for stuff out of my pocket, which is hard when you don’t have a job,” he said. “But as long as you have a good voice and a good message, you’ve got a chance.

“At the end of the day, if I’ve touched one person, then I’ve done my job.”

Smith says he plans to start block-walking this weekend because there’s no substitute for shaking hands and talking to people. It’ll be his first official block-walking event. He says he’d done it once before — kind of.

After knocking on dozens of doors earlier this year, he realized that he wasn’t in a District 6 neighborhood — or even the city of San Antonio for that matter.

He laughs off the gaffe as some much needed experience. He got to get himself acclimated to knocking on a door and presenting his message without alienating any would-be voters.

“It got me more comfortable with doing that,” he said with a smile.

Smith says it’s high time for an “average person” to sit on the dais, one who will be the voice of the people. Win, lose or draw, he wants to pursue politics and said he’d be happy to be a council aide or even an unpaid intern. But he really does want to win. And if he does, he’s committed to serving eight years if the voters will have him.

That would take him to 2017, and Koi Mykale Smith would be a grisly council veteran at 27.